This was published this afternoon
WPBSA Statement | 6 June 2023
WPBSA Statement | 6 June 2023
Today the independent WPBSA Disciplinary Commission has delivered its decision on the ten players charged with match fixing offences and have issued two lifetime bans for Liang Wenbo and Li Hang, and lengthy bans for the other players concerned.
- Liang Wenbo has been given a lifetime from snooker and is to pay £43,000 in costs.
- Li Hang has been given a lifetime from snooker and is to pay £43,000 in costs.
- Lu Ning has been given an 8 year suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 5 years and 4 months until 6 April 2028. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Yan Bingtao has been given a 7 year and 6 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and plea of guilty, to 5 years until 11 December 2027. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Zhao Xintong has been given a 2 year and 6 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 1 year and 8 months until 1 September 2024. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Zhao Jianbo has been given a 3 year and 6 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 2 years and 4 months until 7 April 2025. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Chang Bingyu has been given a 3 year suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 2 years until 7 December 2024. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Bai Langning has been given a 4 year suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 2 years and 8 months until 6 August 2025. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Chen Zifan has been given a 7 year and 6 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 5 years until 20 December 2027. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
- Zhang Jiankang has been given a 4 year and 5 months suspension, reduced following early admissions and his plea of guilty, to 2 years and 11 months until 1 December 2025. He is to pay £7,500 in costs.
Jason Ferguson WPBSA Chairman said: “This has been a very complex case. It has been heart-breaking to see some young talented players fall foul of the WPBSA Conduct Regulations through pressure exerted by two senior players. This behaviour has been recognised as wholly unacceptable by the imposition of two lifetime bans from participating in recognised snooker in any way.
“Those who try to corrupt sport are constantly trying to find new ways to avoid our monitoring processes and this outcome must be taken as a lesson to those who think they can avoid detection. If any player is involved in fixing a snooker match, they will be caught and will face severe penalties.
“I am pleased that the Commission found that they did not see from the present case “any evidence of a wider culture of wrongdoing in snooker”. The WPBSA will continue its strong stance against those who try to manipulate sport and today’s outcome sends out a clear message that match fixing will not be tolerated in snooker.”
The circumstances of the case are that following an alert in August 2022 from the International Betting integrity Association (IBIA), the WPBSA Integrity Unit working closely with Sportradar carried out a detailed investigation that led to charging ten snooker players with serious breaches of the WPBSA Conduct Regulations. Pending the determination of those breaches the ten players were each suspended.
The WPBSA in accordance with the WPBSA Conduct Regulations, asked Sport Resolutions to appoint an independent King’s Counsel to hear the case against the ten players. Ian Mill KC was appointed to Chair the Independent Disciplinary Commission sitting with Grace Cheng of Counsel and Gordon McKay.
The case was heard in London between the 24th and 26th April and on 3rd May 2023 with the players attending in person or by video link. The Players were each legally represented or assisted by the WPBSA Players Association.
On 6th June 2023 the Disciplinary Commission released its finding on the contested charges and its decision on the sanctions to be imposed:
- Liang Wenbo has been found in to be in breach of the Conduct Regulations as follows:
- That he fixed or was a party to fix five snooker matches between 24th July and 28th September 2022
- That he solicited, induced, enticed, persuaded, encouraged, or facilitated players to fix nine matches between 24th July and 13th December 2022
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- That he behaved in conduct that was corrupt by threatening another player and making him delete his messages on his phone.
- That he threatened another player to seek to persuade him not to assist the WPBSA enquiry.
- That he on or after 1st September 2022 when aware of the WPBSA enquiry covered up or attempted to cover up his involvement in match fixing by deleting messages on his mobile phone and by requesting that other players deleted messages on their phones.
- That he failed to cooperate with the WPBSA enquiry by failing to attend interviews and provide material requested by the WPBSA enquiry.
- Li Hang has been found to be in breach of the Conduct Regulations as follows:
- That he fixed or was a party to fix five snooker matches between 24th July and 29th September 2022
- That he solicited, induced, enticed, persuaded, encouraged or facilitated players to fix seven snooker matches between 24th July and 13th December 2022.
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- That he on or after 1st September 2022 when aware of the WPBSA enquiry covered up or attempted to cover up his involvement in match fixing by deleting messages on his mobile phone and by requesting that other players deleted messages on their phones.
- Lu Ning was found not to have been involved in inducing others to fix matches. He accepted the following:
- That in the 2014-15 season he fixed three snooker matches that he played in
- That he on 23rd July 2022 he fixed one snooker match that he played in.
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- That he on or after 1st September 2022 when aware of the WPBSA enquiry covered up or attempted to cover up his involvement in match fixing by deleting messages on his mobile phone.
- Yan Bingtao accepted the following:
- That he on 29th August 2016 fixed one match that he played in
- That he between 3rd March 2022 and 29th September 2022 fixed three snooker matches that he played in.
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- Zhao Xintong accepted the following:
- That he on 3rd March and 11th March 2022 he was a party to another player fixing two snooker matches.
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- Zhao Jianbo accepted the following:
- That he on 26th August 2022 fixed a snooker match that he was playing in
- That he bet on the snooker match that he fixed.
- Chang Bingyu accepted that he on 28th September 2022 had fixed a snooker match that he was playing in.
- Bai Langning accepted that he on 26th September 2022 had fixed a snooker match that he was playing in.
- Chen Zifan accepted the following:
- That he between 24th July and 23rd August 2022 fixed or contrived, or were a party to an effort to fix or contrive the result or score of three snooker matches that he played in
- Zhang Jiankang accepted the following:
- That he on 22nd July 2022 fixed a match that he was playing in
- That between 1st September 2019 and 31st December 2022 he bet on snooker matches in breach of the rules.
- That he failed to provide information requested by the WPBSA
The respondents have until 20th June 2023 to appeal the decisions of the Disciplinary Commission.
The full finding of the Independent Disciplinary Commission can be found here.
Without deeper analysis, the obvious consequences of this is that none of those players will be able to play next season nor will they be able to enter the 2023/24 Q-Schools. This means that none of them will be on tour before 2024/25 if they ever come back. As a result some of the amateurs/ex-pros that did well on the Q-School, without managing to secure a tour card will probably get a lot of opportunities to play next season.
The findings also confirm that some of the younger players felt threatened by Liang Wenbo and Li Hang. It’s particularly bad because those youngsters, finding themselves isolated, away from their families in a foreign country probably looked up to their more seniors fellow countrymen for advice and guidance. I can only suppose that this aspect of things contributed to the life-ban verdict, something that Jason Ferguson had initially ruled out. It also brings the question of what can be done to protect the potentially most vulnerable and I’m thinking about someone like Bai Yulu, a very young woman, alone, in a foreign country, likely not mastering the language, and finding herself in an essentially male environment/sport.
Report on the 2 Q-Schools that concluded today will be posted tomorrow.
If I’m not mistaken, Ronnie used to consider Liang Wenbo to be one of his best friends, and I believe they went on vacation together in China. I wonder if Ronnie and Liang are still in contact or if Ronnie cut things off completely between them…
How about Mark King?
Match fixing is terrible and I have very little sympathy and lenience: yes, some mentoring for young people, especially those who moved to the UK from distant countries would be beneficial and that might be one lesson to be learnt from this case for the future, but the match fixing what has already happened, happened and can’t be undone., But do we know the details how Wenbo and Li Hang actually forced or “persuaded” people? What a nasty piece of work, happy he is totally gone.
The world is flooded with money(inflation of US printing and stock markets) but the snooker players does not get it. They(who provide money) no longer need using violent ways…(for whitewashing)
Persuasion? Like in the Independent Disciplinary Commission, sinister moves under a friendly face… not many can they resist the tempts of “friends” and especially they are not playing good…
About the amateur, are 128 spots filled? (less chance of amateurs in main tour this year, as there should not be suspension again.)
XinTong and Yan… How many did you guys place (I do not think it is a small amount and it should be disclosed) Cannot find it in the statement.
Match-fixing is dreadful, but most of these players are (i) young men (ii) far from home, in some cases during Covid (iii) on precarious incomes (iv) acting under duress (v) fixing only a few matches that (vi) probably few people cared about. And (vii) they have pled guilty.
The punishments seem far too severe to me. Careers of good men are being wrecked. What, faced with organised crime (for this is what it is), would most young people have done? What would the WPBSA board have done, when they were young – if they were far from home and vulnerable?
Bear in mind what happened to James Wattana’s dad, or to the two Thai players whose home was firebombed – in Sheffield! – and ask yourself what you would have done.
I agree Athar, and said similar things before. Match fixing can’t be tolerated, but it is necessary to look at why and how it happened and to better protect the young and most vulnerable players.
-_- Ding, Ding…
(This scandal harms Ding’s reputation… as china fans consider him as housemaster of his academy.
Honestly, hoping future reforms in CSBA will not add burden to current players. Monies from current players I think of – Neil’s discontent to players’ board)
jesus christ stop it. they sold matches, found guilty, end of.
Honestly nonsense they sold it for such a low price…
No it’s NOT that simple. And BTW Zhao Xintong did not fix any match. He failed to report what he knew and did bet on snooker.
of course it is simple. nobody should give these boys the opportunity to play the victim. they acted like crap, got found out, got banned, arrivederci.
I suppose you never made a mistake in your life then Santino?
do you think that knowingly cheating repeatedly at a professional sport is just a “mistake”?
Three of them are young and fixed just one match, being pushed/threatened into it by the ring leaders. Yes, thats a mistake. Zhao didn’t fix any match. He couldn’t bring himself to grass on a close friend. He’s a gambler and is now getting counselling for his addiction. At least those four deserve another chance. Liang Wenbo and Li Hang got what they deserved, a life ban. IMO Yan and Lu Ning are the two that got away lightly.
And I wish there was consistency. I see people regularly calling for getting Stephen Lee back on tour, including from some who are up in arms asking for harsher punishments for the Chinese kids.. Not me. Never. He was done for fixing 7 matches, including at the Crucible. There were other matches that raised suspicions, even an arrest by the police but were never properly investigated by the pre-Hearn WST. I was present at one, talking pictures and there was no doubt in my mind, nor was there in Clive Everton’s and Phil Yates’ minds (there were on site too). He got 2 more criminal convictions for dishonest conducts. He was a grown up man, he was earning a good living from snooker being a top player. And yet … that’s double standard and I can’t help to see an element of racism in it.
I agree with you about the double standards… and what looks like an element of racism, or at least selective empathy.
I don’t have a problem with Stephen Lee returning. He’ll have done his time, and know he’ll be scrutinised closely (obsessively!).
Match-fixing has become perceived as much more heinous than it used to be. Decades back, an element of it was understood to be part (though not an approved part) of the professional game – slackening off against a weaker player, sometimes to the extent of letting the weaker player win frames or even matches. I guess things have changed as the game has become much more professionalised… and as so much more money rides on it.